Monday, November 21, 2011

About the painting: Husband and I went out for an evening sail. Bad news was that there was absolutly NO wind when we got out onto the Chesapeake Bay. Good news was that all the reflections in the water were especially bright. So being the sweet husband I have, he manuvered the boat close to a bunch of crab pot buoys. I started snapping pictures ... well this little bird was posing for me and so here he is!

I chose this scene which is a place I have actually been to. While living in Sardinia a few years ago, my family and some friends were driving along and spotted this old Basilica in the middle of the countryside. Curious and probably in the need of facilities we wondered about the grounds. I remember hearing bells in the distance, when we looked toward the hills there were many sheep making their way down the hill and all had bells around their necks...It was pretty neat because it felt like going back in time.

The only thing touristy about it was a charming little old Sardinian lady selling oranges, water, handmade souvenir's and sheep bells. Yes I bought a sheep bell....they could have been cow bells because there were also cows! ....anyway

The Basilica itself was beautiful and the architecture is Romanesque. It is constructed entirely of local black basalt and white limestone. Inside are incredible frescoes painted in the 12th century.

The sketches above really don't do it any justice so take a peak here to see more.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

With an upcoming show in under 2 weeks I had to stop painting in oils. Why? because they would not be dry in time for the hanging. Yes I have been guilty of hanging wet art.

Now is the part where we organize (not my best quality) and get down to the business of framing, inventory the pieces, pricing, marketing and selling the art.... Now to my dilema. Naming of the paintings. All I can think of is the obvious boring names that go with a painting. "Three Cherries and a Bottle" ....boring.... Some artists are so clever at this and every now and then I come up with one. But this time my hope for cleverness is failing. So I ask you, what would you name this painting?

Friday, July 22, 2011

This is my submission for the Daily Paint Works Challenge given by Abbey Ryan a couple of weeks ago. Here were the instructions.....Paint a reflective object from life. As you are setting up your still life, pay particular attention to your excitement about the reflections. Once you find something that catches your eye, use your painting time to make a visual inquiry about the nature of reflections."

So the objects I chose were a little glass bottle along with a banana pepper that I picked from my garden. Instead of painting it near a window as usual, I closed the blind and used a light adjusted over the set up to eliminate moving reflections from the natural daylight.
My visual inquiries were how cool it was that the pepper behind the glass flows into the reflections of the glass itself...see how that yellow/green creeps up the sides and then is distorted in each section of the glass? I am so easily amused.

Friday, June 17, 2011

This is a photo taken from the Workshop of Abbey Ryan. It was situated in the Pennsylvania countryside at the Artist's of Yardley. AoY is a great place to take classes, workshops, kids camps and see local artists work.

The photo below is of Abbey giving a very informative demo. We were asking her all kinds of questions and she graciously answered while painting. Alla prima is the practice she chooses which means to paint wet on wet and complete in one sitting.

After lunch the class set up about 5 different still lifes throughout the room near the windows. I shared one with 2 other gals it was a piece of pottery, 2 cherries and a pear. I had never painted those fruits before so it was fun trying something new.

Abbey took the time to sit down with each of us and study the view we were painting...then gave us her expertise advice on how to correct or enhance something on our paintings. I learned quite a bit, but still have far to go.

Abbey's workshop was enjoyable and she is a gifted young lady who is also very inspiring. If you have a chance to see more of her work or take a workshop, I highly recommend it!!!

p.s. she paints and sells her beautiful small works nearly every day...amazing!!

6X8 Oil on panel

Here is my study of the setup....I have been playing with it today but still need to adjust the background and shadows need to be darker....reflections are driving me crazy!! time to take a break :)

Monday, May 16, 2011

This is my very first portrait in paint ...I entered it on the Daily Paint Works website. It is under one of the many challenges going on. This one called "All About Me". A wonderful painter named Carol Marine hosted this one saying "nothing to learn here, exept perhaps that portraits are frickin hard!" Haha YES they are! but it was fun as well.
Now my hair really isn't purple and orange, and at this point I don't know what color it really is. Besides it's cheaper to try out a new look on canvas don't you think?

Saturday, April 30, 2011

I am such a procrastinator it's embarrasing sometimes. Today was the last day to submit for this months Virtual Paintout. I even had the location picked out the first week of the month. Anyway, I found the Itsukushima Shrine along a walking path via Google Street View. Some of the views had it completely covered in water and others like the above where people can walk out to see the shrine.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

This is another one led by Carol Marine. Painting one stroke and getting the right color was very difficult to do for me. I had to mix enough of the same color to get the same background. It also forces you to slow down.

So about this globe. A few years ago I got this bug to collect old globes on ebay. This is one of my favorites, the colors are pretty bright and of course it is outdated....It has dings and dents and is wobbly. I suppose that's part of it's charm.

10x8 Oil

"Old Tin Globe"

The Zippo Challenge

This challenge was hosted by one of my favorite artists Michael Naples...I LOVE his work.

for this we could only use 3 colors, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, and titanium white.

It's amazing how many colors you can make from that pallete!

So when I showed my family members this little painting they all said it was Papa's Zippo...he was our grandfather who alway's had his Zippo handy. I like the sound they make when you flip the top!

6x8 Oil

"Papa's Zippo"

Ten Minute Challenge

Oil on 2 6x6 panels

This is a new challenge, it is from the Daily Paint Works site which has some of my favorite artist's on it. One of which is Carol Marine who started a new weekly challenge open to all artists. This week is a 10 Minute Challenge, rules are basically this:

Pick 1 object, set your timer for 10 minutes, paint the object and then stop when timer is up. So each

square takes 10 minutes it goes by so fast and that is the point, to minimize brush strokes and just look at the shapes of color. You can change the position or lighting. (I did a cooler light in the first 4).

Sound easy? well it wasn't. First I did a banana...all 8. They turned out terrible, so I scraped off the paint and ate the banana. Then I tried a tomato, and here those are. The last one is a slice. I gave the the rest to my son and he made a sandwhich. Definately will try more of these!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

So, I have not being very good about keeping my New Years promise of posting, but I really have been painting. Although this is not what was painted. This week I did several setups and equally amount of wipeouts. One of which was on top of another painting from a couple years ago that is about to be wiped out again ugh!!...

...now back to the Sunflowers. In October I had taken a class from Bonnie Roth Anderson who is a Gem of a teacher at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts located in Annapolis. The class was called "Hawthorne on Painting", based on the principles and instruction of Charles Hawthorne. Bonnie is a truly dedicated who has been taught in his liniage and herself a wonderful artist. She pushes us to see the color relationships throughout the painting. Anyway, with alot of squinting, mixing, scraping, remixing..... this is the result. I would still change quite a few things, but for now it is a study and a study it will probably alway's be!!

9X12 Oil

This is from another class of Bonnie's. She set this still life up the first week and the lillies were closed.

by the 2nd week both were open so I had to edit ...as you can see I left one closed and had to imagine how the light was affecting the flower....also the light had changed dramatically....that's the downfall of painting with natural light...it changes constantly...but that's also what makes it more interesting!